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While reading Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up, I had some extremely mixed feelings. Not about the ideas presented, but about the book itself. Now for the most part there is no new material really presented in this book that you couldn’t get from any other atheistic writer, however there are some new ways of viewing the material at hand.

The author of Irreligion is a mathematician by the name of John Allen Paulos, Professor of Mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, known for his writings on Mathematic literacy. Now with those credentials one realizes that a man like this is quite intelligent, but then asks them self, “What does he know about religion?” Well truth is, Paulos presents the idea that using pure logic to see how a God doesn’t fit, is key to realizing what reality and unreality, truly is.

The average reader will go into this book and will easily pick up the basic ideas from each chapter, but Paulos will likely lose them when he begins to talk in Mathematic lingo, at times alienating the reader if they do not have an in-depth knowledge in the field of mathematics. Though he refrains from using many formulas, he does tend to create hypothetical equations in which variables are used to show, rationally, why certain things, such as divinity, miracles, etc. are just not supernatural.

The fast pace of this book is rather nice when it comes to the mathematics involved. When one is presented with something that is a bit too dense, there is a bright side: the book moves on from that topic rather quickly. Each chapter is relatively short, often less than 10 pages, but it does seem that some chapters are unnecessarily repetitive of earlier parts of the book.

Overall the concept of this book is cool, but the execution is tough. Paulos manages to create a book for those that have a more technical thought process, while he also teaches the reader to think more critically. Recommending this book is tough, its not an easy read, but it should not be overlooked, because it is rather rewarding.

“In life man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem harsh to someone who has not made a success of his life. But on the other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and that dreams, expectations and hopes only serve to define a man as a broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations.”

On May 1st, relatively late into the night, the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death was released to the world, thus radiating celebratory noise in the streets of New York City and Washington D.C. This finally brought some closure to the families that suffered from the extreme pain caused to them by the loss of their loved ones back in 2001, when the World Trade Center was attacked by suicide bombers, along with the Pentagon.

With over three thousand lives lost on the bright morning of September 11th, 2001, people have yearned for some sort of justice to be done on behalf of their great loss. And finally after almost an entire decade this justice has been brought. And I would like to show great happiness for those families, and hope that this has brought some sort of relief to them.

When I heard the first reports of this, I did not believe it, but immediately I turned on the TV and quickly went to CNN’s website, to see none other than the headlines of “Osama Bin Laden, the face of terror, killed in Pakistan” and soon to follow the headlines, President Obama addressed the nation, explaining what exactly happened and telling the American people to stay ‘vigilant’ when it comes to defending against the forces of Al-Qaeda.

We have overcome a great hurdle as a nation by the removal of such a strong force in the world of terror, and I would like to show recognition to each of the men and women in the military that have put forth effort to bring relief to the people of the United States.

Though I do not condone war in any form, nor revenge, I do not wish to denounce the fact that there were many people who suffered because of this man. If there was a way other than murder for this to be carried out, I would have supported that whole-heartedly. I do however, believe that this needed to be done one way or another, and that closure has finally come for the families affected.

Geotic is the Electronic/Ambient musical project of Will Wiesenfeld, also known for his work as Baths, which he recently returned to after neglecting it since 2008. With his minimalistic style he manages to create wonderful landscapes that engulf your sense. Using a range of sound and loops accompanied with electric guitar he is able to create a thought provoking atmospheric sound with lo-fi perfection.

Wiesenfeld has made his entire Geotic discography free to download here. However, there is also an option to donate, which I encourage everyone to do!

His newest, self-released, full length album, Mend grabbed the attention of Pitchfork and was reviewed with a 7.4. (Which is about as good as an ACTUAL artist will get when it comes to Pitchfork, considering Pitchfork rated Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a perfect 10.0 and named it album of the year in 2010(this still makes me cringe.)) Though Pitchfork does not cater as much to an artist like Will Wiesenfeld, it was some positive attention, which planted a seed and brought in some new fans.

Cover art of Geotic's album, Mend

I know I don’t usually blog about music, but I think the addition of music to the blog is not a bad idea considering it consumes a large portion of my time and energy. So there will be more in the future.

“One’s own free unfettered choice, one’s own caprice, however wild it may be, one’s own fancy worked up at times to frenzy — is that very “most advantageous advantage” which we have overlooked, which comes under no classification and against which all systems and theories are continually being shattered to atoms. And how do these wiseacres know that man wants a normal, a virtuous choice? What has made them conceive that man must want a rationally advantageous choice? What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice.”

“Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.”

Emma Goldman onces said, “The most violent element of society is ignorance.” And I could not agree more fully. Massacres, genocides, and ethnic cleansing, among many other atrocities, have all sprung from the simple term ignorance, often accompanied by greed. There is another side of ignorance that is important to address also. The fact is, ignorance has created multiple extremely conceited, dumb and arrogant generations, and it is this point that I would like to address.

Over time people become ignorant of what is actually important because distractions are continually created, and eventually consume whole civilizations. Between the glorification of public figures, excessive amounts of shallow entertainment, and activities that require no mental activity, people have become more and more detached from any kind of search for knowledge and understanding. When one combines what is mentioned above with consumerism, a dangerous cocktail is created, which can be described by many different terms, escapism being one of them.

Escapism has almost become synonymous with our generation. When one observes society today they may notice that Aldous Huxley’s predictions of future societies was almost dead on. Now, one would think that at this time in history we would be making an exorbitant amount of progress considering we now have the greatest database of information and shared thought that man has ever seen. This database is what we call the internet. However, the majority of our population settles for minimum requirements being made and are no longer interested in learning.

Yet, if one has stopped seeking understanding, truth and knowledge they become a static being and ignorance rules their thought. Being enslaved by ignorance confines a person to only one corner of their overall existence. To be set free one must seek those exact objects which they have chosen to ignore.

Not only do we have the most massive database of information and shared thought that we have ever known, but we also have more books than ever have been available to any civilization, and they are all essentially at the tips of our fingers. But of course this is completely ignored by the majority of our population.

Imagine if every person had an inclination to seek knowledge, we would be far beyond where we are now. Many people who could help make a significant difference in the progress of man, have become absorbed in things that deter them from ever reaching their full potential, and this is one of the most important things to abolish in the world. With the abolishment of the trait of ignorance many other things will fall with it. Prejudices, delusion and minuscule differences could be done away with if people began to try to understand their fellowman, and began to examine the world through a critical eye.

We are at an important point in history that needs to be handled with extreme care, every person can make a difference, and by abandoning outdated ideologies, prejudices and any other obsolete things that divide us from each other we can make serious progress.

“Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.”
-Dalai Lama